1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproduction/recording apparatus for disk-shaped recording carriers, which holds a plurality of disk-shaped recording carriers or media such as compact disks (hereinafter abbreviated as "CDs"), including a disk autochanger permitting selective reproduction of any arbitrary one of such disk-shaped carriers.
2. Description of the Related Art
An audio apparatus or a navigation apparatus having an autochanger function for reading out musical information recorded in a CD or geographic information recorded in a CD-ROM by housing a plurality of CDs in a magazine and housing the magazine containing the CDs in a reproduction/recording apparatus has been widely in use for mounting on an automobile. An auto-mobile-mounting reproduction/recording apparatus cannot house many CDs because of the limited size of an installable equipment for attaching operably within the automobile compartment. The mechanism for housing and replacing CDs is installed at a position far from the compartment such as the trunk room, and it is a common idea to arrange only minimum portions necessary for operation within the compartment. When arranging an autochanger apparatus outside the compartment of automobile, however, it is impossible to conduct any replacement of housed CDs during travel of the vehicle.
Prior art automobile autochanger apparatuses capable of housing a plurality of CDs within the compartment are disclosed, for example in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications JP-A 3-235249(1991), JP-A 620425(1994), and JP-A 6-231526(1994), an outline of which is illustrated in FIG. 66. FIG. 66(a) is a schematic front sectional view, and FIG. 66(b) is a schematic plan sectional view. CDs can be inserted into and ejected from an enclosure 2 of an autochanger apparatus 1 through an opening provided on the front side of a magazine 3. The magazine 3 is capable of housing a plurality of CDs 4, and optical reproduction of the recorded information is accomplished while rotation-driving one of these CDs 4 by means of a pickup (hereinafter referred to as "PU") unit 5. The PU unit 5 is mounted on a rack 6, and can move forward to, and back from, the position of the CD 4 selected in the magazine 3. The rack 6 is arranged on one side of the enclosure 2 so as not to hinder insertion and ejection of the magazine 3 into and from the front opening of the enclosure 2. In the automotive autochanger apparatus 1, a floating mechanism 7 for instantaneously achieving a floating state is provided so as to prevent transmission of external vibration to the rack 6.
In order to select the CD 4 housed in the magazine 3 to attach the CD 4 to the PU unit 5, there should be provided a space permitting insertion of the PU unit 5 on at least one surface side of the housed CDs. For the selection of the CD 4 to be reproduced by inserting the PU unit 5 in the magazine 3, it is necessary to cause a lifting displacement of the magazine 3 as a whole so as to align the height of the selected CD 4 with that of the PU unit 5. When the space for allowing insertion of the PU unit 5 to any of the plurality of CDs 4 housed in the magazine 3 and the magazine 3 has a limited thickness, the number of CDs 4 capable of being housed is reduced. The magazine 3 can therefore be divided into upper and lower parts, and a space can be formed only on one side of the CD 4 to be reproduced by the PU unit 5. A lifting/dividing mechanism 8 is provided for the purpose of conducting such lifting displacement and division of the magazine 3. The lifting/dividing mechanism 8 is provided on a side of the enclosure 2. An electronic circuit board 9 for processing of the information reproduced by the PU unit 5 and for control of the mechanisms of the autochanger apparatus 1 is arranged behind the enclosure 2.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications JP-A 6176472(1994) and JP-A 7-272383(1995) disclose prior art devices in which a stocker capable of housing a plurality of CDs or the like is provided in an enclosure thereby enabling insertion and ejection of a CD one by one. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 6-176472(1994), a drive unit for recording and reproducing optomagnetic disks housed in a cartridge is provided between an inlet and a stocker. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 7272383(1995), insertion and reproduction are carried out with a CD being placed on a disk-shaped carriage.
In a magazine-type autochanger apparatus 1 as shown in FIG. 66, it is necessary to accomplish insertion into, and ejection from, the enclosure 2 by the use of the magazine 3 which is capable of housing a plurality of CDs 4. Even when only one CD 4 is replaced, therefore, it is necessary to take out the magazine 3 from the autochanger apparatus 1, replace the CD 4 in the magazine 3, and reinsert the magazine 3 into the enclosure 2, thus requiring much labor. Since the magazine 3 is taken out from the enclosure 2, a high stiffness is required in the taken-out or removed state, and in the inserted state into the enclosure 2, the magazine 3 must be divisible at an arbitrary CD housing position. A magazine 3 satisfying these requirements will have a very complicated structure with a large weight. In addition, a mechanism for securely holding a CD 4 housed in the magazine 3 taken out from the enclosure 2 must be incorporated. The gap between CDs 4 to be housed cannot therefore be largely reduced. Furthermore, it is necessary to form a space for inserting the PU unit 5 by causing the lifting/dividing mechanism 8 to move up or down in accordance with the position of the PU unit 5 for selecting the CD 4 and to divide the magazine 3 with the position of the selected CD 4 as the boundary. The magazine 3 should therefore have a height largely reduced as compared with the height of the enclosure 2. As a result, in the automotive autochanger apparatus 1, the magazine 3, which is capable of housing CDs in the enclosure 2, is subject to a height limit due to the necessity of attachment in a console box in the compartment and thus it can house only a small number of CDs 4 on the order of about three.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 6176472(1994), which handles disks in a placed state in a case, requires a large space as compared with the case where a disk is handled in the form of a single disk. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 7-272383(1995), CDs are handled on a carriage, thus requiring a complicated inserting and ejecting operation into and from the stocker.